linguistlist.org>
Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>
linguistlist.org.
hotmail.com>Alves, Fabio, ed. (2003) Triangulating Translation: Perspectives in process oriented research, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Benjamins Translation Library 45. Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/14/14-3420.html Vittoria Prencipe, Universit� Cattolica ''Sacro Cuore'' di Milano. DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOK The seven articles presented in the volume are an elaboration of those presented in a subsection of the II Brazilian International Translators' Forum about process oriented research in translation. Like the Congress centred on Translating the Millennium: Corpora, Cognition, and Culture, the book focuses on the interfaces between cognition and translation and on the investigation of translation process from theoretical perspectives, empirical analysis and pedagogical applications. The book is divided in three parts. The first one is centred on theoretical perspectives in translation, and pays particular attention to pragmatic and to the role of translator subjectivity versus an objectivist approach to process oriented research. The first article by Fabio Alves and Jos� Luis Gon�alves, A Relevance Theory approach to the investigation of inferential process in translation (pp. 3-24), is concentrated on the role played by Relevance Theory (RT) and proposes a competence-oriented research of translation, CORT, (cf. Gutt 2000) to investigate ''the basic characteristics of problem solving and decision making processes in translation'' (p. 3). The authors claim translation competence is the ''sum of several sub- competences which are constituents of a complex cognitive network of knowledge, abilities and strategies'', such as communication (p. 4). >From this point of view RT is considered the theoretical framework upon which, through empirical instruments, like Translog and Tap's protocols, ''it is possible to map the recursive movements of translators and to identify parameters of relevance in their problem solving and decision making processes'' (p. 21). The authors conclude their interesting analysis underlining that the ability in manipulating procedurally and conceptually encoded information leads to the context, implicatures and explicatures, of source text expressible in different environments, then, in different target texts. In the second paper, Controlling the process: Theoretical and methodological reflections on research into translation process (pp. 25-42), Gyde Hansen focuses her analysis on empirical translation studies, and particularly on the evaluation phases of translation process, ''the interaction between the translators' skill, knowledge and competences and their ability to keep processes and products under control'' (p. 26). Her research is part of TRAP (Translation Process) project, an empirical research program, through which translation process is defined ''everything translator must do to transform the source text to the target text'' (ibid.). The members of TRAP project combine introspective methods, using phenomenology as epistemological support, and retrospection with a computer program, Translog, providing quantitative and objective data about processes. This method allows them to design new experiment and offers the tools to facilitate the observation and description of translation process. In fact, thought description and negotiation of observations did not lead so far to objective results, they shared replicable experience and results. The Process in the Acquisition of Translation Competence and Evaluation (PACTE) group was formed in 1997 by Allison Beeby, Monica Fern�ndez Rodr�guez, Olivia Fox, Amparo Hurtado, Wilhelm Neunzig, Mariana Orozco, Marisa Presas, Patricia Rodr�guez In�s and Lupe Romero. Their aim is Building a translation competence model and in the third paper of this book (pp. 43-67), they describe the first model they design (pp. 43- 50), the description of their project (pp. 50-54), and, at last, the modification introduced to that model. All the group's members are translators and translation teachers and because of their different theoretical and methodological background, they proceed on two different points of view, the translation process and the translation product. Their first objective is ''define the professional translator and a model of how translation competence is acquired that could be validated empirically'' (p. 44). So they introduce innovative aspects of analysis, like psychological components and a dynamic model of translation competence acquisition (p. 49). The second part, Monitoring the process, centres on empirical investigations to validate some of the instruments used in triangulation approach. In his paper, Effect of think aloud on translation speed, revision, and segmentation (pp. 69-96), Arnt Lykke Jakobsen, presents data of an experiment finalising to determine what influence the think-aloud (TA) condition - as described by Ericsson and Simon (1984) - might have on translation process and target text revision. Five final year translator students and five professional translators translated two texts from Danish into English and two from English into Danish. One of the two texts in both language directions was performed with TA, the other one without it. All tasks were logged by Translog. The analysis of results shows TA method slows down target text production in both language direction and increases the number of segments per source text unit. This results, however, do not invalidate TA method, the most obvious method to experimentally answer a lot of the questions about translation process. In the next paper, The influence of working memory features on some formal aspects of translation performance (pp. 97-121), Rui Rothe Neves deals with the influence of working memory (WM) features on some formal aspects of translation performance. ''WM is the ability to keep some information cognitively active while processing that same of another piece of information'' (p. 98). The first MW model, proposed by Baddeley and Hitch, is based exclusively on neuropsychological investigation, but MW can be considered a process, that allows to interact processing speed, task coordination, storage capacity and translation performance (pp. 100-101). The paper reports the data of an experiment in which six novice translators and six professionals carry out a Brazilian Portuguese text in English, without time constraints and using the Translog DOS version. The analysis of the results shows novices and experts ''arrived at the same results by means of different resources. ... it is reasonable to suppose that translation experience does not imply acquiring a completely new ability, but rather organizing a better, more efficient, and resource-saving way of approaching the translation task'' (p. 117). Finally, the two articles in the third part promote the use of triangulation as a pedagogical instrument. The first article, Patterns of dictionary use in non-domain-specific translation, by Inge Livbjerg and Inger M. Mees, (pp. 123-136) discusses the results of three experiments carried out at the Copenhagen Business School in 1997 ''which had the aim of comparing translation into the foreign language carried out with or without access to dictionaries'' (p. 123). The objectives were ''the investigation of how, and to what extent, students use dictionaries when translating non-domain-specific texts; to discover whether the use of dictionaries influenced the quality of the translation product'' (ibid.). The authors used think-aloud method, developed by Ericsson and Simon (1980-1984). The analysis of results suggests that post-graduate students ''have insufficient confidence in their linguistic abilities'' (p. 131), in fact they use dictionary by looking up units for which they have found one or more solutions. So the correlation between time spent on the translation and quality of the product it not clear. Then, ''students focus too narrowly on lexical units at the expense of other important factors such as situational and textual context'' (ibid.). In the last paper, Using think-aloud protocols to investigate the translation process of foreign language learners and experienced translators (pp. 137-156), Heloisa G. Barbarosa and Aurora M. S. Neiva, outlining the trajectory of the PRONIT research group, support the use of think-aloud protocol to analyse translation process. They use TA protocol in both monologue and dialogue versions, with different research subjects, with different language skill levels and different backgrounds in translation practice. So they can obtain much more results summarized in nine points (cfr p. 152-153) like the identification of three major categories of problems; the strategies more spontaneously used to resolve them; the importance of dictionaries use, etc. The results of the experiment fulfil the authors, who hope that ''it [will] be possible to acquire information that [will] help in the training of future translators'' (p. 153). EVALUATION The papers in this volume are a very interesting summa of the new perspectives in Translation Study and deserve praise for integrating theoretical, methodological and pedagogical perspectives linked by the triangulating metaphor. Finally, the book clearly shows that research is indissolubly lied to the process oriented approach and gives numerous cues for exploring the importance and the complexity of cognitive processes in translation. ABOUT THE REVIEWER Vittoria Prencipe, Ph.D. works as a postdoctoral researcher in the field of Translation Studies at the Universit� Cattolica "Sacro Cuore", Milan (Italy). Her current research deals with the application of a Sense - Text model to the field of linguistic translation.Mail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue